While there were countless highlights from our ten-day drive from Buffalo to Los Angeles (by way of Vicksburg, MS), none offered more memorable photos than Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.

I'll let the pictures tell the story.

See what I mean?

Park entry costs $25 per vehicle, per week. As mentioned in the blog, the nearby attraction of Meteorite Crater costs $15 per person. Lot's of campers stay here!

Our entrance brought us to the South Rim - over 7,000ft above sea level, and over 5,000ft to the river at the floor. Almost ten miles across the way is the North Rim at 8,255ft.

The view ain't bad, either.

Perspective, as illustrated by the people in the upper left corner.

I've added a couple videos, too. Right click and choose "save as" to watch. (Videos have the windows media player overlay. ((duh.)) )

Rock formations smoothed by the wind.

Same shot zoomed out.

Zoomed out even further.

Me, setting up for a shot on the South Rim.

Video: Walking all the South Ridge without getting lost.

Found another ledge that gives a fair idea of what tourists had beneath them.

And many of these ledges had nothing beneath, like this one.

Our hike also gave great views of the canyon

A profile view of the canyon wall.

A better profile shot.

Ended up hiking a trail that would us over 1,000ft into the canyon.

One of the three lenthy switchbacks we'd later have to drag ourselves back up.

I don't know if the descent made me more comfortable with heights or I just lost sight of how close I actually was to the ledge here..

Looking up at the ridge we walked along.

Around this point the wind increased, sweeping upward from both sides of the ridge...

...And Jeremy lost his hat..,.

...And I tried to scale the ledge to get it! But about 8 feet from the hat the ground became too loose to scale and I chickened out. Shortly after, the hat blew further down into the ravine .

Video: Hiking down to Cedar Ridge. Great views

Made it down to Cedar Ridge.

Pausing for a break on the ridge

And take in the views.

We took a few shots of was was ahead

You can see a switchback in the lower left. The size of the canyon makes everything look deceivingly closer and smaller unless you step back. (compare with above)

We estimate that we descended about 1/4 of the way down the canyon.

A great view of the canyon below.

Two hours later we made it back up the the top.

Just in time to catch the sunset

During the day the shadows leave cast gray and purple across the canyon walls.

But as the sun sets, it shines directly across the canyon

Bringing out vibrant red and orange colors

And lighting the canyon floor

Can I really say any more?

Plateaus on the North ridge.

In the very middle of this shot is a small glimpse of the Colorado River.

Video: Zooming out from the Colorado River.

Hard to believe a river carved out this much mountain.

Especially when you look out 10 miles across.

Last picture of the sun setting over the Grand Canyon.

Video: So peaceful here. I could let this short clip loop for hours.

euphomus is a semi-weekly columnist for ChasingTowers. He can be reached by emailing euphomus@ChasingTowers.com.

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